Toy Prison

I have been fighting with my kids constantly about picking up their toys. "I didn't make that mess", "I didn't play with that", "Nobody's helping me" along with many others are the excuses I kept hearing day after day. Well, yesterday we told the kids that the toys were going to be put away for week if they did not pick them up. Carson decided that playing outside sounded like a better idea then picking up toys and Tahirah informed us that she only cared about the toys in her room which she actually did pick up. Carson returned to a very empty toy room and apparently thought we wouldn't actually take them away. There were, of course, lots of tears. Our room has now been converted into a "Toy Prison". It's not the greatest arrangement but hopefully I will get more of a response when I tell the kids to pick up their toys....or maybe not. Any other suggestions that have worked for any of you would be much appreciated!